Eton College Kings Scholarship

[misstiggiwinkle]

I was wondering if anyone had any advice on the KS at Eton or has been through a similar decision making that I find ourselves faced with?

My DS has a conditional place at Eton for Sept 2028 entry. His school have recommended (more, insisted) that based on his CAT scores he should sit the Kings scholarship, giving him a more interesting route through common entrance. This is very flattering to him however strongly suspect he’d prefer to be in a ‘normal’ boarding house rather than be a scholar in College despite being academically able. Whist being ferociously bright he is very much one of the lads and down to earth with a huge interest in sport. My concern is that his school perhaps are seeking the accolade for their own benefit as I don’t think it really provides him/us with any major benefits financially or socially. Having said that I’m sure he’d embrace the challenge and stretch of the exams…

We are yet to visit the boarding houses, due in the next few months, but are being pressured to tour College ahead of this.

DS isn’t actually sold on taking up the place at Eton as most of his prep school mates are going to Radley and he loves the school. He has an unconditional place and would likely pursue an all round scholarship. They did a good job at interview stage of wooing the boys and making them feel comfortable where as Etons approach is much colder.

Any advice appreciated!

We did a similar prestigious school scholarship but we went for the College tour at Eton after gaining a place there, based on that;

• the prep school will definitely want to enter him partly for kudos. But they might also think that he will find Common Entrance quite easy (which it is) so he’ll make a decent stab at KS. If they want to back your son for KS they’ll need to put quite a lot of specialist work in. It is HARD, but Eton also wants to encourage boys to take it. Your son will have a head start on lots of the other boys taking CE3 when starting GCSEs.
• My son was nervous about being happy in College too, he articulated this as wanting a wider set of friends, however I think he was worried about the inevitable competition. Some schools allow academic scholars in other “normal” houses though (not sure Eton does?).

Could you begin the prep for KS with your prep school and see if he enjoys it, and make your decision from there? BTW there are some very bright Radley boys too, and it turns out lovely men, so if he decides Eton isn’t for him both are great options. Eton is obviously wonderful too though, and no need to be a KS to enjoy it.

Very easy solution to this.
He can sit the exam “honoris causa” which means he gets the additional challenge of the KS curriculum/exams but if he comes in the top 14 in the KS exam he does not go into College, but to the boarding house he holds an offer for.

The downside of this is that he (and his prep school) does not get the honour and glory of winning KS (if he is top 14 material which very boys are) but the upside is that he does not have to be in College.

His prep school may feel quietly disgruntled about this choice but they do not have a leg to stand on. Presumably their argument to you is that your son would be bored by CE and it’s in his best interests to be challenged - and this way he still will be.

Oh and to add - contrary to what @Totes41 said, it isn’t usually feasible to switch from KS (or any other scholarship) to CE part way through Y8. The reason for this is that although generally easier, CE requires set knowledge that the scholarships do not. Eg CE covers specific history periods and set texts. requires geography coursework and a French oral, etc. In general it is better to make up your mind whether to do CE or a scholarship by the end of Y7 and stick to the decision.

I have seen boys decide mid Year 7 not to proceed with KS and similar, but good point Ziegfeld that it isn’t ideal. Your solution is much better!

Most schools don’t have scholarship sets until Y8. So in most cases it doesn’t matter what you think in Y7, you just need to have decided by the beginning of Y8 when scholarship application forms for senior schools go in. After that it becomes difficult to change your mind.

Very similar position here - extremely bright child but definitely an all-rounder who loves sport more than school work. You have nothing to lose by doing a tour of College so go and see what you think of the house master. We did, but as we didn't really warm to the College house master, we then thought about doing the route that Zeigfeld suggested and keeping him in an Oppidian house.

We did get some very very good advice from a senior teacher at his school, which was that the KS is so demanding (think beyond GCSE) and requires such specialist teaching, that it would ruin his last year at prep as he would have to work so hard, and that it would also risk denting his confidence. There is also the risk that they do worse in the exam and end up in lower sets than they would have done if they'd done the CE. Also, boys can get awarded Oppidian scholarships after trials in F block, but as even that is just for kudos! So we don't see the point of even putting him through the exam and he'll be doing CE.

We have instead spoken to all his main subject teachers to make sure that he's stretched in lessons, and he's entering a couple of competitions instead to keep him engaged.

I'm not sure that I follow what a previous poster said about switching from scholarship to CE mid way through the year - maybe it's different at different schools but at our prep all boys study for the CE exams in normal lessons, with scholarship study being done in the additional sessions. So whether you can switch depends on the school.

You know your boy better than the school, and so you need to do what's best for him, not for the prep!

@ArtHistory I am surprised to hear that everyone at your prep school prepares for CE, even if they are not sitting it, as KS and Winchester Election are very, very different in form, content and standard. It’s a bit like the same person training for the 100m in the daytime and the marathon at night - it isn’t a great use of time and not many children could pull that off. I assume the reason is that there are not enough boys to form a scholarship set of their own.

Regarding sets at Eton - that is a red herring as there aren’t really any in F block except for maths. There is a theory that boys who do badly at KS maths do worse in their maths GCSEs but I suspect that is more correlation than causation.